The Road to Hell...

is paved with good intentions. After yesterday, that may be the inscription on my tombstone. I wanted the girls to have a spectacular birthday, an amazing birthday, and I may have packed a little too much in.

It started out well. Steve was home and we opened presents. Juliette was delighted with her TMX Elmo. Bella loved her Hannah Montana alarm clock. Then I made Bella's favorite breakfast: sugar crepes. SUGAR???? SUGAR??? Start the day with sugar??? I should have known - but there are nutritious things in there as well like tons of eggs and milk. Anyhow Bella marched off to school with a big smile on her face.

Juliette spent the whole morning marching around like the queen of the day. She brought her Elmo to the tennis babysitting and took all the birthday greetings of the moms and pros along the way in stride. She was beaming with pride - telling everyone that she was "a half" today.

I went in after lunch and read a book about sting rays to Bella's class. I was amazed at how big they seemed. They loved the story and I was relieved because I was a little afraid that they would sass me. They were a tough crowd - complaining to their teacher about having to change locations and ready to be rowdy. How did they get so big so fast?

After school, Bella went off to her best friend's house for a quick playdate. They had a little feast of cupcakes ready for them. They even had one for Juliette! We took it home and had our own little private celebration, a lucky spontaneous event considering how the real celebration went down.

I drove the children into the city to go back to that amazing chocolate restaurant we had gone to a few months ago. The traffic was HORRENDOUS. We were in the car for close to two hours. We arrived at the restaurant and Steve had done everything to make up for our hectic commute in. The food was waiting for us on the table - hot and perfect. It didn't matter.

Jack was exhausted and just wanted to crawl on my lap and go to sleep. He didn't even touch his chocolate milkshake. Juliette was cranky and overwhelmed by the noise. She kept lapsing into tears. Bella was the only one enjoying herself - one out of two is not bad at least. Then, just as the waiters brought dessert over, Juliette hit her head and started crying hysterically. Jack woke up for dessert and started playing with his chocolate syringe - then accidentally poured it all over himself. Juliette finally stopped crying - just in time to throw up all over herself.

As we drove home through the crowded city streets, I felt so guilty that I wanted to cry. I felt like I had ruined their special day. Then I came home and watched the little video of my private celebration with Juliette and I realized that although the day ended poorly - it had moments of special joy too.

And tomorrow is the big Hannah Montana party!